US court rejects Trump plea, allows review of FBI-seized documents

New York: A New York court has rejected a motion to prevent prosecutors from reviewing a series of documents seized by the FBI from the offices of President Donald Trump's personal attorney.

The documents were seized on April 9 from Michael Cohen's office and from his New York hotel room, as part of a series of investigations examining some of his actions, Efe news reported.

At first, the documents had been linked to the payment of $130,000 by Cohen to pornstar Stormy Daniels -- Stephanie Clifford -- in exchange for her keeping silent about the affair she allegedly had with Trump in 2006.

But Cohen's attorneys went to court to try and prevent prosecutors from examining the documents, something that was temporarily rejected by Judge Kimba Wood at a hearing on Monday.

Judge Wood, however, left the door open to naming a special mediator and to reviewing the possibility that the documents could harm the attorney-client privilege.

Among the materials seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation agents are assorted documents on a number of legal matters and the harddrives from computers in Cohen's office.

During the hearing, the identity of a third person -- Fox News political commentator Sean Hannity -- was also revealed. It is not known what type of work Cohen did for him.

Hannity is considered to be one of Trump's closest advisers outside the administration.

Cohen has been under investigation for months for possibly committing election finance infractions and bank fraud.